Phoenix Island by John Dixon was definitely an odd pick for me. I have picked anything in this genre and I am pretty surprised that I enjoyed reading it. It was military style and fighting, which I normally don’t lean toward. CBS writers used it as the idea for their new story Intelligence. Although really loosely based, it started with the idea of implemented microchips into the brain.

Likes:

Carl was a great main character. He had a troubled life, was orphaned, but had a great heart that came out in the wrong ways.

The island was an awesome background for the military reform camp in the story.

The side characters were strong and well-written. Medicad, Ross, Dexter, Davis, Parker, Octavia, they all really came to life to make the book rich.

The story was described as Lord of the Flies meets Wolverine and Cool Hand Luke, SO true. That description fits the book perfectly. It modernizes Lord of the Flies and adds in the superhero features of Wolverine.

Gripes:

As far as I can tell, the story is a stand-alone, but I really think this would make a great series. Maybe with the popularity of the book it will continue, but at this point it just kinda stops and you don’t really know what is going to happen to Carl.

I did have a hard time with the blood and mistreatment of kids. I can see how the TV show skipped the beginnings of Phoenix Island and really moved into the intelligence, microchip part. It would be hard to portray these kids turning on each other and the “adults” being so horrible to them. I haven’t seen Intelligence yet, but I do really want to check it out. With Josh Holloway as the lead on the show, it is something I definitely need to see! Yum!

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